William Madison Wall

He was his great grandfather and he was my third great grandfather.  Kay Wall lives just down the street from me.  The first question I asked Kay when I met him was if he was related to William Madison Wall.  A couple of months ago, Kay loaned me a book called, "Out of Captivity" by, Rallet C. Lund.  It contains the childhood story of our shared ancestor.  Each Sunday for the past couple of months I've been reading a chapter of it to my kids.  I had no idea the kind of trials William Wall went through.

Born in Illinois, he was the second oldest of four boys, raised in a good Christian family with loving parents. His mother died when he was eight while giving birth to his youngest brother.  After his mother's death, they went to live with their grandparents.  Being re-located meant his father had to look for new employment.  He wasn't having much luck and decided to further his options in distant towns.  One morning before his father went to search for work, William begged him not to leave.  He said he felt like something bad was going to happen to his dad but he didn't know what.  His father insisted and set out in spite of William's pleadings.  He never returned.  No one knows what happened to him.  They believe somewhere along the way he was robbed and murdered.

Williams grandparents were old and couldn't handle the four orphaned boys.  They split them up and sent them to foster homes.  William was ten years old when he was made to live with the Barton family.  They treated him like a slave and he was forced to eat and sleep in the barn.  In the summer he was chained up like one of the animals and in the winter Mr. Barton kept William's shoes locked in the house so he wouldn't try to escape.  For food, he received only a little bit of bread, water, and meat drippings a couple of times a week.  Sometimes he was so hungry he would eat out of the troughs of the cattle or pigs.  He slept in a burlap sack and had only the clothes on his back to wear.  William received daily beatings from Mr. Barton and his sons and lived as a slave for four years.  

The winter William was fourteen, he escaped from slavery and walked for almost a month with bleeding frozen and bare feet.  He found a few places here and there to chop wood or clean stables in exchange for food and sometimes a place to sleep.  He eventually met the Haw's family.  They were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  They took him in as one of their own.  Later, he fell in love with one of their daughters and they married.  

What I have shared here is such a small little fraction, such a simplified version of his story.  It doesn't really do him justice.   It has been incredible to read.  I can't say for sure if the kids look forward to hearing a new chapter each week but I certainly do.  In my personal scripture study, I am in the last two chapters of Malachi.  I love the verse about the spirit of Elijah, about turning the hearts of the children to their fathers.  My heart has been turned to this father of mine.  I love the faith he had through all that he endured.  His prayers were constant and he trusted in God.  In his short lifetime, he accomplished amazing and miraculous things.  I am honored to be one of his children.  

William Wall ended up joining the Church and became a great pioneer for the early saints in the Utah Valley.  He was a sheriff and a bishop of Provo's 3rd and 4th ward.  He led the construction of the road through Provo Canyon and has a statue built in his honor called "Journey's End."  The town of Wallsburg, near Heber City, is named after him.

Buried in the Provo City Cemetery 

-Alicia
Walk With Me

I found this article on Family Search:

Deseret News
CENTENNIAL LEGACIES
By Nicole K. Young, Staff Writer
Published: Sunday, Sept. 29 1996 12:00 a.m. MDT

Captured in bronze 
A 20-foot man riding a horse attracts a lot of attention in Heber City.
The bronze sculpture of William Madison Wall, Wasatch County's legacy project, stands alone in Heber City Park.

But there is a reason the statue is located in the southeast corner of the park, away from the playground, away from the picnic areas.

If you look at the statue at just the right angle, at the time of day when the sun is setting behind the Wasatch Mountains to the west, it looks like Wall is riding down the mountain, coming home to the Heber Valley.

"This is my home . . . This is my journey's end."

This is the theme of the statue, said its sculptor, Peter M. Fillerup, who recently moved from Cody, Wyo., to Wasatch County.

When Fillerup first came into the valley, he felt the spirit of the valley and its residents. The statue symbolizes that spirit.

"He (William Wall) has the spirit of the people that are here," said Fillerup.
Wall, born in Rockingham County, N.C., on Sept. 30, 1821, traveled with the 7th Mormon Company to Utah in 1850.

In 1858, Wall was among the first cattle ranchers to settle in the Heber Valley. His ranch was located at the mouth of Provo Canyon on the south end of the valley. Wallsburg is named after the colonizer....

Walk With Me

My two older children leave for Trek this week.  It's an opportunity for them to learn through personal experience a little about the early saints who sacrificed in unspeakable ways to push the work of the restored Gospel forward.  Our youth leaders have encouraged each of the kids attending to represent someone in their family history, find out their stories, and to "walk with them" during this journey.

There are two ancestors of mine who I would love for my son and daughter to "walk with" on their Trek.  The first is my 3rd great-grandfather, William Madison Wall.  Yesterday in church, an older brother from our ward spoke about him.  (William Wall was his great-grandfather.)  This brother and I have known for quite some time that we shared this ancestor and we often greet each other affectionately by "cousin."  As he told the stories, my children recognized that they were hearing their family story too.  It was a treat for us all.

It's kinda funny that here we are, living in the Provo 3rd Ward and this ancestor of mine once served as bishop of the Provo 3rd Ward.  William Wall's life growing up, how he found the gospel, and the incredible work he did to build Zion is very fascinating.  I intend some time to write more about his stories in a future post.

Micah, Chandler, Miriam, Me, and Kaylee with the statue of my 3rd great-grandfather
and my children's 4th great-grandfather looking down on us.
This memorial is in Heber City, Utah.
William Wall was in charge of building the Provo Canyon Road 
that connects Heber City to Utah Valley

A book about Wallsburg, the town named after my 3rd great-grandfather, William M. Wall.

...................

My grandma's sister, Sylvia, is the ancestor I'd love for my daughter to "walk with" on this trek.  Sylvia was one year younger than my grandma and although she never was a member of the church, she had deep faith in God and a profound love for the Bible.

Last year in the middle of the night, on my son Micah's birthday,  I awoke from a terrible nightmare. I dreamed I was in some sort of a concentration camp with him and he kept asking where the rest of our family was.  I didn't know but I promised him that we would be reunited soon.  He curled up on the ground and shivered from fear.  There was a chill in the air as dark ominous clouds loomed toward us.  In an attempt to calm him, I wrapped my entire body around his and hugged as tight as I could until I could feel his shivering stop.  In comforting words I said, "Micah, it's going to be alright.  Remember what I have always told you! 'There are a million ways to die and only one way to live'... We have followed that 'one way' to live and we will be okay.  We will be okay."

When my parents came to visit later that day for his birthday, I told my mom about my strange dream.  She responded, "Did you know my aunt was in a concentration camp with her two sons?"
"What?  Really? When!?
"During World War 2... she and her husband went as Christian missionaries to the Dutch East Indies (which is now Indonesia)  and they were taken captive by the Japanese Imperial Army.  She and her two sons survived.  Tragically, her husband did not."

Yesterday, my mom brought over a copy of my Aunt Sylvia's story.  I was so excited to finally have her words in my hands!  "She illustrated this picture on the front," my mom said pointing to the cover page.  "She was an artist like you."
Wow, what a treasure, I thought to myself.  I've read a few chapters already since yesterday and I plan to use these stories for our family home evening lesson tonight.  I will share more about her too in my future posts.

Photo from one of the men's concentration camps. 

Photo from one of the women and children's concentration camps.

As we come to learn more about the journeys of those who have gone before,
We in a sense "walk with them."
And I know that someday... as we look back on our own journey,
We will realize just how often they were literally "walking with us."

-Alicia